The Hofstra Chronicle

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Hofstra men's soccer drops heartbreaker to Syracuse

In the 86th minute, Luke Brown tied the game for Hofstra men’s soccer, but just over a minute later, Tajon Buchanan score the go ahead goal for Syracuse University that delivered a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the Pride on Sunday night at SU Soccer Stadium.

As the clock ticked down, both teams acted on the pressure to score, scoring the final three goals in 4:23. Three minutes after Hilli Goldhar, assisted by Ryan Raposo and Buchanan, scored a tiebreaking goal in the 83rd minute, but the Pride’s fight wasn’t over yet. Brown launched a cannon from 30 yards out to knot things up again before Buchanan’s second goal of the game put the Orange in the lead for good.

In the first half, Syracuse got on the board first, putting one passed goalie Alex Ashton on a rebound. Brown quickly responded by cashing in on a penalty kick to tie things up at one.

Buchanan netted his first goal of the game with a header off a free kick to help the Orange regain the lead, but the back-and-forth game continued. Hofstra scored its own goal off a header by senior Sean Nealis that was set up by George O’Malley to tie things up yet again.

It was the second time Brown scored more than one goal in a game since the Pride played against Northeastern in his freshman campaign in 2016. He also led the Pride with four shots, including three on goal.

Nealis recorded his first career assist and first three-point game in the loss.

Ashton made five quality saves to keep the Pride in competition with the Orange. Syracuse was predicted to finish fifth in the ACC Atlantic Divsion in the preseason poll. The team improves to 2-1.
With the loss, Hofstra drops to 0-3-1 to start the season, but has hope to return home with a notch in the wins column.

Hofstra will play the finale of its five-game season-opening road swing on Thurday at 6:30 pm at Seton Hall.